1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a flush toilet, preferably, a marine toilet, adapted for high-pressure waste removal utilizing very little water, less than one gallon.
2. Background of the Invention
Water saving toilets have been needed in the desert areas of the world, and on moveable vessels, like aircraft, recreational vehicles, and boats. The marine industry has long needed reliable toilets, which conserve water. There has been a trend toward toilet bowl designs that achieve adequate flushing while minimizing the use of water. One example of a jet flush water supply system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,945. This patent discloses a flush toilet that includes a toilet bowl and a trap drainage passage connected to the toilet bowl. The toilet bowl has a water jet hole defined in a bottom region thereof and opening toward the trap drainage passage. A source of pressurized water, such as from a water pump or similar pressurizing unit is coupled to the water jet hole for drawing water under lower pressure directly from an external water supply and expelling the water under higher pressure through the water jet hole toward the drainage passage to develop a siphon flow to discharge sewage from the toilet bowl through the trap drainage passage.
Additionally a water jet toilet has been descried in U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,413, which is incorporated by reference and includes a toilet bowl, with a discharge trap formed continuously at the bottom of the bowl part. The trap further has a rising channel that extends obliquely from the bottom of the bowl. A first weir is formed at the upper end of the rising channel. A descending channel extends downwardly from the first weir, and a cross laid channel extends substantially in the horizontal direction from the lower end forming the descending channel and the discharge opening. A gathered water part is formed between the second weir and the lower end of the descending channel, and simultaneously, the descending channel is formed in the vicinity of the lower end with a horizontal part extending horizontally toward the cross laid channel. This invention has been know to have difficulty in installation, and other operational problems because of valve body being disposed on a support arm which is known to fail.
The present invention differs from the applicant""s own patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,831, in that the present invention uses less water and improved jet water maceration as compared with the original invention,
Finally, various power flush toilets have been disclosed; see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,029,287, 5,918,325 and 5,803,114. None of these references has the features of the present invention, which is a type of toilet that utilizes the energy available in the pressured water supplied to create a vacuum in the toilet bowl.
The present invention has been made taking the above-described problem in the prior arts into consideration and aims at providing a flush toilet, which can sufficiently cope with water saving requirements while providing a reliably operating toilet.
A toilet and method for flushing using less than 1 gallon of water, comprising: a toilet body comprising a bowl, support walls, a rim, and a waste outlet; a water jet macerator having a waste inlet connected to the waste outlet, a macerator water inlet connected to a second water stream and a discharge opening connected to a first discharge passageway; the toilet body further comprising a water inlet port for receiving water from a water source connected to an inlet valve; a splitter for dividing water from the inlet valve into a first water stream and a second water stream; A rim valve for receiving water from the first water stream; a bowl spud for receiving water from the rim valve; a rim adapted to receive waste from the bowl spud; an actuator connected to the inlet valve which permits a user to initiate flushing by actuating the inlet valve causing water to flow to the splitter, second water stream and the first water stream; a nozzle for receiving the second water stream and expelling water from the second water stream across the bowl into the discharge opening, macerating the waste and moving macerated waste into the first discharge passageway; and an anti-siphon device connected to the first discharge passageway and to a second discharge passageway.